Reenforced paper-box member



Dec. 18 1923. 1,477,963

E. W. LABOMBARDE REENFORCED PAPER BOX MEMBER Filed Nov. *7, 1921 av IPatented Dec. 18, 1923.

urea STATES ELIE W. LABOMBARDE, OF NASHUA, NEW HAMP$HIRE BEENFORCEDPAPER-BOX MEMBER.

Application filed November To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIE W. LABOMBARDE, a citizen of the United States,and resident of Nashua, in the county of Hillsborough and State of NewHampshire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inReenforced Paper-Box Members, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to paper boxes of that type which have side andend walls perpendicular to the body portion which forms the bottom ortop of the member according to whether said member is the receivingmember of the box or the lid or cover therefor, and the invention hasparticular reference to means for reinforcing the corners of suchmembers.

To open a closed box of this type it is customary to engage an edge ofthe lid or cover and lift it. This causes a strain which frequentlyresults in breaking the corner. Hence the object of my invention isprimarily to reinforce the corners of box lids or covers although I donot limit myself thereto since the same construction is advantageous forthe receiving members of boxes.

Among prior structures designed to secure the production of pasteboardboxes with strong corners, stay strips of paper or cloth, or lengths ofstring, have been arranged to extend around the box members. Thedifliculty of locating such stays in cor rect position led to theemployment of relatively small stays or strips extending across thecrease lines on which the blank is folded to set up condition, andpasted to the blank on both sides of said crease lines. Such stays orstrips are usually of very strong material, such as kraft paper, theirtensile strength being greater than that of the pasteboard or box blank.They are pasted down both sides of the crease lines of the blank whilethe latter are fiat, and therefore, when the blank is folded on thecrease lines the presence of such pasted stays causes a resistance tothe folding and frequently results in a prying apart of the material ofthe relatively weak paste-board, leaving a weakened or broken corner.

An important feature of my present invention is that I locatereinforcing tabs on the creased blanks so as to cross the crease linethereof, but leave said tabs free to slide on the surface of the blankwhen the blank is folded, thereby avoiding any straining effect on theblank due to the presence of the tabs.

Of the accompanying drawings, in which I have selected a box lid orcover to illustrate my invention Figure 1 is a plan view of the cut andcreased blank with reinforcing tabs located at the corners.

Figures 2, 3 and 4 are perspective views illustrating successive stepsin the conversion of the blank to box member form.

Figure 5 represents a section on line 55 of Figure 4.

Referring first to F i ure 1, the blank is out and. creased to form acentral or body portion 12, double side wall sections 13, 1 1-, and endwall sections 15, 16, each vall section 13 having tongues 17. This is awellknown form of blank.

My invention consists in the tabs which, in the illustrated embodiment,are indicated at a. Said tabs are preferably made of kraft paper and inpractice are thinner than indicated in the drawings. They are shownrather thick merely for clearness of illustration. The tabs are of asize to overlie portions of the sections 13 and 14 and tongues 17 and toextend out over the space or re-entrant angle between the edges ofsections 14 and tongues 17 The tabs are ontirely free fromthat is, theyare not adhesively secured totwo of the blank portions over which theylie. In fact for some purposes they need not be attached to any portionof the blank at all except for the fact that if not held they would beliable to slip out of position during the folding operation. This isbecause their reinforcing effect is due to the interfolding presentlydescribed, and not to their being adhesively connected.

As shown, the tabs a extend across the crease lines between sections 13,1 and the crease lines between sections 13 and tongues 17. They arepreferably held in their lo cated positions by any suitable adhesiveindicated by the dotted areas in Figure 1. In other words, the tabs aare indicated as attached solely to the ends of the sections 13 and areentirely free from any connection with the sections 1 1 or the tongues17 When the blank is folded, it is customary to first (either by hand ormachinery) apply stripes of glue the full length of sections 14 asindicated by the dotted areas thereon in Figure 1. Then the sections 14are folded in and glued down on sections 13. This folds each tab (0 overas indicated in Figure 2. The portion of the tab folded over, not beingattached to section 1a, is free toslide relatively theretoandaccommodate itself thereto without causing any strain on the crease linebetween sections 13 and 14.

The next foldin steps are to turn the folded parts 13, let up and thetongues 17 in at a right angle thereto as shown in Figure 3, the lattercausing no strain in the now upright portion of the box member for thesame reason as explained in connection with the first folding operation.

The final folding is effected by bending the end wall sections 15 upagainst the outer faces of the tongues 17 (compare Figs. 3 and 1-) andfolding the sections 16 over inside and securing them by any suitableadhesive or well-known interlocking feature not necessary to illustrate.

By referring to lligure 5 in connection with Figure 1 it will be seenthat no adhesive is necessary to enable the tabs (4 to perform theirreinforcing function. The interfolding of the tabs with the wallsections results in the tabs extending around the angles as shown inFigure 5 in such manner as to reinforce those angles without relyingupon any adhesive whatever. by the omission of adhesive the tabs effectthe reinforcing without straining the angular portionsof the box memberwhich are outside thereof.

While Figure 5 indicates but a single thickness of the tab a, due tosaid figure indicating a section on line 5-5 of Figure 4, it will bereadily understood from Figure 3 that the tab a is a double thicknessaround sizes of the different portions may be such as tomake deeper boxmembers, or boxes the length of which relatively to their widths ma begreater or lesser than illustrated.

Flaving now described. my invention, I claim: 7

1. A creased box member blank having reinforcing tabs located inpositions crossing the crease lines and free to shift relatively to saidlines when the blank is folded.

2. A creased box member blank having re inforcing tabs located inpositions crossing the crease lines, each of said tabs being secured tothe blank solely at one side of said lines.

A creased box member blank having foldable wall sections and havingreinforcing tabs, each tab being secured at a single point or area tothe blank and having free portions to be interfolded with said wallsections.

4t. A creased and foldable box member blank having reinforcing tabsextending across the crease lines and secured to the blank, each tabhaving a portion of its area unsecured to the portion of the blank whichit overlaps, whereby strain on the crease lines when the blank is foldedis avoided.

5. A box mcmberhaving folded wall portions including tongues extendingaround the corners thereof, and reinforcing tabs extending around saidcorners and. inter ELIE w. LABOMBARDE.

Witnesses:

KATHRYN Gross, HAZEL M. JEWELL.

